This invention relates to rotary rakes.
Rotary rakes are well known where there is provided a plurality of pin wheels (also known as rake wheels) arranged in an echelon arrangement with each pin wheel including a hub and outwardly extending fingers and each pin wheel being supported by a separate arm pivotally supported from a common support frame, and wheels providing for ground support of the common frame and adapted to thereby support the pin wheels for an aligned tracking across ground to be cleared.
The problem to which this invention is directed relates to the difficulty of using such a rotary rake in an application where large pieces of timber are to be raked, and large volume of debris with such timber pieces is required to be raked.
The application which illustrates the problem best relates to clearance of pine forests such as are found in many locations in the United States of America.
Pine trees that have reached a height of perhaps eighteen to twenty feet and which have been cut, can form debris including such lengths of timber as is appropriate from such forest clearing operations together with the many stumps that have been loosened from ground engagement by an underneath cutting of their roots.
In order to most economically and effectively rake such debris into side rows requires that any such rake shall be firstly of large size and secondly that it will handle such debris load such that it can consistently and continually rake such debris in a continuous path.